Desert Island Songs of Asha Bhosle (Part 3, 1970-1979)
This is the third part of the Asha SurveykshaN series, covering songs from the 1970s. As usual, participants were asked to select up to 40 solos (including solos, "mostly" solos, and solos with chorus) sung by Asha for Hindi films and non-film albums, envisioning a desert island scenario.
Not surprisingly, R D Burman and Jaidev's albums take the top two spots in Asha's 70s output. Caravan (1971) emerges as the most popular album, accumulating a total score of 75 for its three iconic songs. The non-film gem An Unforgettable Treat (1973) claims the next spot with eight memorable pieces of poetry set to tune by Jaidev for Asha.
Year-wise, 1973 stands out. Songs from this year were selected 327 times. The next most favorite year is 1971 with 282 selections. For number of songs chosen, 1973 again leads the pack with 51 songs, followed by 1971 with 43 songs. On the lowest rung are 1976 and 1978 with 12 songs each.
The most widely, almost universally, chosen song is Asha-OPN partnership's swan song - chain se hamako kabhii aapane jeene na diyaa from Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1973) with 84% selections. It is followed by Pancham's bechaaraa dil kyaa kare from Khushboo (1975) with 67% selections.
This survey exhibited the longest tail in selections. The number of songs selected by only one participant was 121, which is higher than Part 1 (107) and Part 2 (111). Only 8 songs were in the list of 50% or more participants, compared to 25 in the 60s survey. This indicates a general disparity in song choices, with the exception of the top few selections.
For the rest of the 275 songs selected by the survey participants, check the complete list.
Highlights
- Solos Asha sang in films in this period: 976*
- Total songs selected by survey participants: 277
- Songs selected by two or more participants: 156
- Songs getting only one vote each: 121
- Unique albums in selections: 194
Top 10 albums (based on cumulative total votes for songs of an album)
| Rank | Album | Total Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caravan | 75 |
| 2 | An Unforgettable Treat (Non-film) | 67 |
| 3 | Khushboo | 59 |
| 4 | Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye | 57 |
| 5 | Anamika | 49 |
| 6 | The Great Gambler | 47 |
| 7 | Joshila | 33 |
| 8 | Hare Rama Hare Krishna | 32 |
| 9 | Loafer | 29 |
| 10 | Mere Jeevan Saathi | 28 |
Years ranked (based on cumulative total votes for songs of a year)
| Rank | Year | Total Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1973 | 327 |
| 2 | 1971 | 282 |
| 3 | 1975 | 153 |
| 4 | 1970 | 129 |
| 5 | 1979 | 124 |
| 6 | 1978 | 117 |
| 7 | 1974 | 112 |
| 8 | 1972 | 108 |
| 9 | 1977 | 75 |
| 10 | 1976 | 35 |
Most common composers for Top-50 songs
| Composer | Songs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | R D Burman | 26 |
| 2 | Jaidev | 7 |
| 3 | Kalyanji-Anandji | 4 |
| 4 | Shankar-Jaikishan | 3 |
| 4 | S D Burman | 3 |
| 4 | Laxmikant-Pyarelal | 3 |
| 7 | Ravindra Jain | 2 |
| 8 | O P Nayyar | 2 |
Most common lyricists for Top-50 songs
| Lyricist | Songs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anand Bakshi | 12 |
| 2 | Majrooh | 9 |
| 3 | Gulzar | 5 |
| 3 | Neeraj | 5 |
| 5 | Sahir | 4 |
| 6 | Ravindra Jain | 2 |
| 7 | Indeevar | 2 |
* According to Vishwas Nerurkar's book "Swarasha"
Participants
Abhay Jain, Aditya Pant, Ali Rashid, Amarendra R Nargundkar, Armeen Ramabhadran, Arun, Arun Verma, Asad ur Rahman Kidwai, Ashok M Dhareshwar, Asif Alvi, Bharathi Ganapathi, Camaal, Divya Gupta, Faraaj Qureshi, Gajendra Khanna, K S Shenoy, Ketan Dholakia, Mani, Medha, Mustafa Raja, N Sridhar, Narsingh Dev Agnish, Neeru Malhotra, Nilangshu Haldar, Nishant Shah, Nitin Shitole, Pavan Jha, Preetham Gopalaswamy, Rakesh Parikh, Sandeep, Sanjay Bhowmick, Sanjay Kathuria, Sanjeev Chandran, Sathya, Shailendra Diwan, Shalini Razdan, Shekhar, Shrinivas Phoujadar, Subrat Mohanty, Sukesh Hoogan, Surajit Bose, Swaraj Mishra, UVR, Veena, Vibhendu Tewari, Vijay Kumar K, Vinay Jain, Vipin Nair, Vish Krishnan, Vivek Choraria, Yatindra Madaan
Participants who selected 40 songs: 43%Participants who selected 20 or fewer songs: 29%